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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> Who makes money from their photography
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Showing posts 1 - 14 of 14, (reverse)
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04/17/2004 04:27:21 AM · #1
I would be interested to see how many of us are making money from photography, either professionally or as a little extra source of income.
I havn't made any myself but would hope to in the future when the standard of my photography has improved.
04/17/2004 05:23:12 AM · #2
I don't directly make money, but photography is very important for my business and has helped me increase my business alot, you can say it is a major part for helping increasing business
04/17/2004 06:53:19 AM · #3
I've made money through DPCPrints, and through winning competitions, and also through doing little projects for my dad's business. Overall it's not much, but I've not spent a penny on my camera (won it) so everything's a profit :)
04/17/2004 07:42:42 AM · #4
I've made a little money (very little) over the last 10 months but I'm starting to see a lot more interest from potential clients. I spent 10 months shooting model portraits. I asked friends to let me photograph their families for free and even offered to give them 8x10's or 16x20's and no one could schedule the time. Suddenly now that I have my office plastered with 8x10's of models and my own daughter and wife, people are asking how much they would have to pay to get family portraits, get senior pictures or have me photograph their wedding.

All my money has come from portraits.

Kev
04/17/2004 08:54:03 AM · #5
I'm lucky enough to get paid for my hobby. I did portraits and weddings for about 18 years, but recently have switched entirely to architectural and commercial. I also do some illustrative (have illustrated 3 books and 4 mini-books so far).

Working in this field makes it easier to get up and go to work in the mornings.
04/17/2004 08:59:41 AM · #6
I've made some money photographing families around the holidays. Also, I was hired by an accounting firm to photograph all the partners for thier web page. This monday I'll photographing a charity event.

I've been asked to do over 10 weddings. I've declined every time. I'm not confident enough to do a wedding. For the most part, it seems like a nightmare (guaranteed bad lighting, and probably pushy parents, and if I screw up someone's wedding - I'd feel awful).

04/17/2004 09:29:18 AM · #7
Great shot Kris!

I've managed to convince the people at work to hire me as their product photographer. Here are some samples: //mariomelillo.com/gallery/Products
I've financed my camera (and expensive hobby) this way. I get more and more work from it.

Mostly it's still a hobby, as I already have a full time job that takes up most of my time. But who knows, maybe one day...

Message edited by author 2004-04-17 09:29:39.
04/17/2004 09:56:53 AM · #8
I wish. I don't even know where to start to get models. None of my friends or family want to model. The only thing Ive got to model are poor defenseless animals LOL
04/17/2004 09:59:01 AM · #9
I used to work in commercial photography as a photographer, photographer's assistant, custom B&W printer and photo lab rat, both here in Michigan and in Los Angeles. I didn't know enough about business to run one, so I pretty much floundered about until I went back to school for engineering. It's a lot easier to work as an engineer and have photography as a hobby than the other way around. Though I have been considering shooting the occasional wedding to help finance my hobby.


04/17/2004 10:17:20 AM · #10
Hopper: Wonderful shot!

I work part-time at a portrait studio. Can't say that I "make money" there (LOL)...

I have done some freelance work of my own, but nothing steady.
I would like to have this turn into a worthwhile business.

I have also sold some prints on DPC, so getting credit for purchasing my own prints is a nice payoff. :)

04/17/2004 10:22:54 AM · #11
Sure, I make money from my photography. In fact I am on my way to a shoot in about an
hour. If you are doing it part time and have "day" job. My suggestion
is to figure out what type of photography you want to do and start
purchasing equipment little by little while you have your day job.
When you have gotten the correct equipment. Start charging. That simple.
It doesn't have to be exactly the right equipment either. Just good enough
to do what you want to do.
04/17/2004 10:29:32 AM · #12
I'm a designer and illustrator (at least it says so in my profile) and generally, when I'm working as a designer, I don't use my own photography, but do occasionally art direct a photo shoot, and having a solid working knowledge of photograpy adds value to my service.

However, for illustration, it's pretty much a given that I'll be using my own photograpy, either as a basis for the image or as reference for the details. Here's an example: //levelfive.com/HTML/PORTFOLIO/SGI-coffee-cup.html.

Last year I participated in a gallery show, and most of my contributions were based directly on my photography of flowers. You can see the results here: //levelfive.com/HTML/PORTFOLIO/3Perspectives.html
04/17/2004 10:39:55 AM · #13
Oh, sorry for the double posting...

I forgot to mention about the wedding thing... one of my friends is an avid -- but amateur -- shooter, and he's slowly building a reputation for himself in wedding photography. He started by doing friends weddings for free under the one condition that they hire a professional to get the "real" pictures. He watched what the pro was doing and eventually built up the confidence to 'solo' and start charging. That seems to be a pretty reasonable method for learning the ropes, and everybody wins.

My wife and I actually have three weddings coming up in the next 2 months, and I'm interested in shooting a lot and providing a CD as a gift -- additional to a regular gift of course. I wouldn't want to be tacky, you know. :) I'm really quite wary about the whole thing tho: I'm sure that at least two of these weddings will be shot professionally, and I don't want to step on their toes.

I have to admit that I'm really insecure about the whole thing -- I don't want to be seen as some dork running around with an expensive toy... I think I'm going to make a new topic on this... the responses and advice should be interesting.
04/17/2004 10:59:18 AM · #14
The main prohibitor for me comfortably shooting a wedding right now is lens choice with the 10D crop. 1Ds and film shooters use the 24-70 and 70-200 and a fast prime like the 85 1.2 or the 50 1.4. I'd maybe be able to get by with my two F4L zooms (17-40 and 70-200) and my 50 1.4 but I'd really be wanting for the F2.8L zooms under most conditions, and 24 on a 1.6x crop isn't wide enough. For weddings on a 10D you'd need the 16-35 and the 70-200 2.8 lenses at least and those are prohibitively expensive for me right now. There's a reason people charge lots for weddings...

Oooh...yesterday I was running and saw a girl with an F717 shooting a very small wedding. She was into the sun, major backlight, no flash. I felt like stopping and telling her to use the flash but would've interrupted things in a major way. Cringe...
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